Should You Adjust Your Business Strategy for the New Year?

January 3, 2019

Should You Adjust Your Business Strategy for the New Year?

With the new year upon us, now can be the ideal time for you to examine your company’s business plan and strategy. It might be that your strategy and plan are due for an update or that you’ve pivoted during the course of the year and need to make changes that reflect the change in direction. When reviewing your plan and updating your strategy for the future, here are a few things worth doing.

Update Your Business Goals

Now is the ideal time to examine any goals you set during the past year and to take a look at how your company fared when it comes to reaching those goals. If you had set a specific revenue goal, were you able to achieve it? If so, did you exceed your expectations? If you didn’t reach your goal, what obstacles stood in the way? It could be that the things that kept you from reaching your goal were beyond your control or they might be things you can correct by changing other aspects of your business.

Evaluate Your Methodology

The world is constantly evolving and things move at a rapid pace. How you market your company today likely looks a lot different from how you marketed the company a decade ago and even different from how you marketed a year or two ago. As you look back over the past year, pay attention to any changes in marketing trends and consider how you can take advantage of them in the year to come. For example, if your company has yet to embrace social media marketing, you might find a way to work that into your plan for 2019.

It’s also important to think about how changing your methods can help your business grow. Will you be better positioned to communicate with certain customers on social media? Is there a method you’ve neglected so far that will help you reach a previously untapped customer base?

Assess Your Vendor Relationships

As you review your business strategy, take a moment to assess your relationships with vendors. Working with vendors is a two-way street: You want to get the best deal and the best service possible from them. They want to provide that service and meet your needs while meeting their own targets and goals.

Part of reviewing and assessing your vendor relationships is looking at the prices you’re paying for specific services or products. Are your costs in line with the standard amount charged for such items or are you paying a markup or premium? If you do notice that the amount a vendor is charging you is higher than usual, it helps to find out why. Does the vendor do something none of its competitors do? Or has the price simply crept up over the years?

Depending on the results of your assessment, you might need to find new vendors for the year ahead or negotiate with your existing vendors to get a better price or better service package.

Consider Your Staffing Needs

As you review your business strategy from the past year, take the time to think about any staffing challenges you faced. Were you able to hit your targets with the team you had or were people constantly working overtime or calling in backups? Was the amount you spent on employees, including wages, benefits, and other expenses, more than you expected or in line with your targets?

Looking to the future, ask yourself if your business will benefit from hiring more people. If so, it might make sense to start planning for new hires at the start of the year. You want to give your company ample time to hire and train the right people.

It can also be a good idea to check in with your current team at this point. How are they feeling about their relationship with your company? Are there things that they wish were different? It can be worthwhile to make sure your best team members are happy in their positions and are interested in staying with your business for as long as possible.

In preparation for a new year, you might find that there’s a lot to go over and assess when it comes to your business. The team at New Direction Capital is available to help you assess your business strategy and make changes and updates for future growth. To learn more, contact us today.

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